October26, 2015

Mr. Speaker, the Department of Justice has closed its investigation into Lois Lerner and her band of bungling bureaucrats at theIRS. Choosing political expediency, it won't prosecute the actors.

But according to news reports today, not only did officials at theIRS abuse their power by targeting the administration's political enemies, now they possess spyequipmentto do it.

Now theIRS will have ``sophisticated cellphone dragnet equipment known as Stingray.'' These devices ``work by pretending to be cellphone towers in order to strip metadata and in some cases even content from phones which connect to them.''

Mr. Speaker, whydoestheIRS want tospyonAmericans ? It sounds like the old Soviet Union to me. The Fourth Amendment protects Americans from this type of widespread, abusive government spying.

It is time for Congress to make sure that the constitutional right of privacy applies totheIRS and to this new technology. Technology may change, but the Constitution does not.